Former JPMorgan Executive Charged With Bribery -- WSJ
May 17 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
Hong Kong agency says ex-banker offered a job to son of a
logistics firm's chairman
By Joanne Chiu
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 17, 2019).
Hong Kong authorities charged a former executive at JPMorgan
Chase & Co. with bribery, adding to the fallout from the bank's
controversial "Sons and Daughters" hiring program in Asia.
The city's antigraft agency said Catherine Leung Kar-cheung, a
former vice chairwoman of JPMorgan's Asia-Pacific investment
banking business, bribed the chairman of a logistics company by
offering to employ his son at the bank.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption said Ms. Leung
made two employment offers in connection with an initial public
offering of the logistics company, which it didn't name. The
offers, it said, were made between 2010 and 2011. The agency said
Ms. Leung has been released on bail and is due in court on May
20.
Ms. Leung was one of two senior executives connected to an
investigation into the bank's hiring in Asia. The bank pushed them
out in 2015, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Ms.
Leung, 51, later joined hedge-fund manager Serica Partners Asia
Ltd. The Journal couldn't immediately reach Ms. Leung for
comment.
The Sons and Daughters program at JPMorgan saw bankers in Asia
offering internships and jobs to the relatives of clients and
prospective clients to win investment banking business in the
region.
Between 2006 and 2013, J.P. Morgan hired about 200 relatives or
friends of executives at Asian companies. They included close to
100 individuals who had been referred to the bank by officials at
Chinese state-owned firms. Some of the hires were unqualified for
the jobs they were given.
The hiring practices were the subject of a multiyear probe by
U.S. authorities. In 2016, JPMorgan admitted it violated the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay $264 million to
resolve civil and criminal charges stemming from its Asia hiring
practices. More than two dozen employees of the bank were let go or
disciplined in connection with the investigation.
A bank spokesperson said on Thursday this was a historical case
that JPMorgan reached agreement on and settled in 2016. "We
strengthened our compliance procedures and controls around hiring
and reinforced the high standards of conduct expected of our
people."
Write to Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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